Jean Mallandaine was born in Worthing, Sussex, England. She studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and they have honoured her by electing her an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for her distinguished services to music.

Jean quickly became associated with opera, touring the UK for the Arts Council of Great Britain with a small, but highly acclaimed opera group as pianist and manager.

She worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera for 25 years as a Principal Coach with renowned conductors, including the late Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle and Raymond Leppard, and innumerable singers of international repute.

As well as being widely known as a coach, Jean is also an accomplished accompanist having given recitals with Elisabeth Söderström, Frederica von Stade and Kiri Te Kanawa for whom she played at the latter’s first New York recital and with whom she worked closely for many years. As a harpsichordist much of Jean’s continuo playing has been recorded.

One of the most rewarding periods of her career was the fifteen years as Head of Music Staff at Houston Grand Opera and Artistic Supervisor of Houston Opera Studio. She worked with many famous singers as a coach and accompanist, including Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni, José Carreras and Nicolai Ghiaurov. The work with the Studio involved auditioning over five hundred singers a year and being a member of many judging panels for competitions, including those of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Her experience of opera houses has not been confined to Glyndebourne and Houston, for she has worked at Paris Opera, Marseilles, Wexford festival, Santa Fe, Canadian Opera, Festival International Cervantino in Mexico, Opera Northern Ireland and the Young Artists Programme at the Metropolitan Opera.

Jean is on the staff of the Opera School at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London, and is a visiting coach at the Northern College of Music.

During the summer of 2002 Jean worked in France at Colmar for the “Jeunes Voix du Rhin” young artists programme.